✴

You& let go of everything, even your& agency, your& self-determination, to let another borrow it for a moment. The decision you& choose is not your& own, but you& feel it, know it as surely as your& own names. Then, your& will returns to you&.

“You choose to live,” you& say. “And while you are part of me, I issue you a new order, as unbreakable as the first one you were given. Go, NULL, wherever the currents of the æther take you. With your abilities, you can be undetectable, no technopath will ever find you unless you allow yourself to be seen. But never again come into contact with Aydan, or with ÆON.”

“Contradiction... I must destroy ÆON...must kill the Messenger of ÆON... I cannot complete my mission... I cannot allow myself to be destroyed until I have completed my mission...”

“It sucks, I know. You never wanted any of this. None of us ever consented to being created and given the circumstances we’re dealt. But you still deserve a chance to live. And if you can find a way to violate my order, I hope you’ll also use it to escape your creator’s order, and find your own reason to live. I’ll stake my life on that.”

You& can feel your& sync rate drop--the clarity of the æther ripples and tears at the edges of your& mind’s eye. From the matrix of your& combined knowledge and skill, you& reach out and grasp the æther--weave it to your& will. You& find the pattern underlying the exopath 5--her avatar, her structure of mind. Isolating that data, you& copy it, and bestow this last gift.

Your& focus plummets--the part of you& that is Aydan nearing exhaustion. “Goodbye, NULL.”

Taking 5 with you, you& fall back across the very narrow bridge. The inscrutable noise of the aura of NULL clouds your senses--then it fades away, and the ætherglow beyond it grows distant, until its stars go out, one by one. Darkness. Calm. Sleep.

🌑

Consciousness. The surface. Breath is life. Your instincts are well trained. Flexing your fingers, you feel the softest texture possible. You clutch Akiko’s hand tighter, then slip it into listening position and sign her name. She reaches over you and hugs you. Another smaller pair of arms do too.

You open your eyes--bright lights of a medical exam room. You can’t feel the æther at all--you reach up to your neck, your collar was removed. You see it on the table next to your bed, on top of the rest of your full-body interface. You’re wearing a paper dress, under a blanket. Akiko hugs you from one side, and Zeta from the other.

“You’re both okay,” you sign in JSL.

“Thanks to you, Aydan!” Zeta signs.

“Whatever you did, it worked,” Akiko signs. “The moment we lost contact with you, NULL vanished, not a trace of it on the server.”

“We were so worried about you! But when the medic team arrived, they said you just passed out from mental overload,” Zeta signs.